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Instagram stories: New tool lets people post text instead of pictures

'Now, you can turn your most random thoughts into something colourful and expressive'

Thursday 01 February 2018 17:59 GMT

A woman carries an Instagram branded bag at Facebook's headquarters in London, Britain, December 4, 2017 (REUTERS/Toby Melville)

Instagram, the photo-sharing app, isn't going to need you to take quite so many pictures anymore.

That's because the company is adding a special mode to its stories feature that lets people simply post text – no photo or video needed.

The new feature, called Type Mode, allows people to simply write down what they're feeling. The app has always offered the ability to add text to a post, but required it to be set against a picture.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

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1/1111 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Hide and reorder filters

Filters are a core part of Instagram, but there are so many available it can be easy to get lost. You can change the order in which they appear, and even hide the ones you never use, to speed up your photo-sharing process. On the filters page, scroll to the end, tap Manage, then drag and drop the ones you want to reorder, and un-check the ones you want to hide.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Never miss a post

Instagram controversially ditched its reverse-chronological order feed for a new order determined by an algorithm, making it easy to completely miss some posts. To make sure you never miss a certain somebody’s updates, you can set up notification for them by visiting their profile, tapping the three dots in the top right-hand corner and selecting Turn On Post Notifications.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Eat less data

If you’re worried about how much of your mobile data Instagram saps, you can limit it by sacrificing the speed at which the photos and videos in your feed load. Go to your profile, tap the three dots in the top right corner, open Cellular Data Use and choose Use Less Data.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

See your Likes

It’s easy to lose track of your friends’ old posts on Instagram, but if you know you Liked it, you’ll be able to track it down easily. Just go to your profile, hit the three dots at the top and select Posts You’ve Liked. You can also save posts in a folder only you can see by tapping the bookmark icon underneath it. Take a look at everything you’ve bookmarked by tapping the same icon that sits near the top of your profile.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Find relevant hashtags

Everyone knows you can expand the reach of your posts by using a number of relevant hashtags, but what those are aren’t always glaringly obvious. You can easily find the right ones for you by typing a keyword into Instagram’s search bar, selecting a hashtag from the list and swiping along the Related row that appears at the top of the screen.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Clear your search history

Whatever your reasons are, you can clear your recent searches by going to your profile, hitting the three dots in the top right and selecting Clear Search History. To go a step further and hide your Suggested searches too, go to the search page, tap and hold the account you want to hide, and choose Hide from the pop-up window.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Hide photos you’re tagged in

Tagged photos on Instagram aren’t as prominent as they are on Facebook, but anyone can still browse through other people’s pictures of you by visiting your profile and tapping the photo of you icon. If you’re tagged in a picture you don’t want other people to see, go to your profile, hit the photos of you icon, tap the three dots at the top of the screen and choose Hide Photos.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Secure your account

Make your Instagram account much harder to hack by enabling two-factor authentication, a security feature that protects you even if your login details are stolen. Go to your profile, tap the three dots, open Two-Factor Authentication and toggle it on.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Share lots at once

If you want to upload a bunch of related pictures and videos without flooding everyone else’s feed, you can shared them all as one post. Hit the + icon, select Gallery, choose Select Multiple, pick out up to 10 of the pictures and clips you want, tap Next and reorder them by dragging and dropping.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Record hands-free

Instagram Stories has been a massive hit since it came out last year, but you might not know that you can record Stories clips without having to hold one of your digits on the record key. On the Stores screen, just swipe through the options at the bottom until you get to Hands-Free.

11 useful Instagram features you didn't know existed

Edit posts after publishing

Most people know you can delete any of the images you’ve already posted, but not everyone is aware that you can also edit them. Instagram unfortunately doesn’t let you tinker with filters and effects, but you can change your original caption, tag people and update the location.

It hopes the change allows people to write down what they're thinking or feeling without so much effort, it said. The change also comes as Instagram looks to branch out into features more traditionally associated with its owner, Facebook – including a rumoured video call mode, something that would have been unthinkable on the Instagram app before.

Instagram said that it hopes the feature will let people write their thoughts with less worry about what they say. "Now, you can turn your most random thoughts into something colorful and expressive," it wrote in a blog post announcing the change.

To add as much expression as possible, the company will roll out a range of new fonts and stylings that can be added to Instagram posts and make them exciting, even if they don't include a picture. Those same styles can still be used to overlay over a photo or video, though.

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"When you open the camera, you’ll see 'Type' next to 'Normal' under the record button. Tap 'Type' and write whatever comes to mind — your favorite lyrics, a silly thought or a random idea — and play with different styles to change the look and feel. Then, you can pick different background colors, highlight words and phrases or add a background photo."

The updates will be arriving in a new version of the app, being pushed out to iOS and Android users now.

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